Iranian spy getting the movie treatment

By
Jeff Stein

There are agents, and then there are Agents.

The Iranian state news agency isn’t saying who negotiated what kind of deal for Shamran Amiri, but it is saying that the re-defector’s tale is going to get the feature treatment from -- what else? -- Iran’s state film agency.

“An Iranian film company affiliated with Iran’s state television plans to produce a TV movie about Amiri’s case,” according to an Associated Press report from Tehran.

“Amir Hossein Ashtianipour, director of Sima Film, was quoted by Fars as saying that a group of young graduates have been hired to write the script.”

The story line? Amiri was under the control of Iranian intelligence all along. A double agent, in other words. His defection was a nicely baited trap for the CIA.

“The Fars news agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, quoted an unidentified source as saying Iran’s intelligence agents were in touch with Amiri while he was in the U.S. and that they won an intelligence battle against the CIA.,” the A.P. said.